Hockey East Journal: Grading the teams on their first halves

The Hockey East season kicks back into gear this weekend, with
nine of the league’s 10 teams in action. But before the
holiday break gives way to the frenetic second half of the season,
it’s time for some midterm grades. Oh sure, the
student-athletes already took their finals for the fall semester,
but as far as we’re concerned, we’re only halfway
there.

Without further ado, let’s look at the report
card.

Merrimack's Jesse Todd (photo: Merrimack College
Athletics)

Boston College – A. The Eagles may
not have been at their best throughout the first half, but other
than a few somewhat noteworthy blemishes they’ve been the
most consistently solid team in the league. They’ve made
their bones most on offense, where they lead the league in scoring
3.61 goals per game, and junior Chris Kreider (Boxford, Mass.) is
tied for the league lead in points (23).

Boston University – A-minus. The
Terriers’ four league losses came against three of the best
teams in the league (BC, UMass-Lowell and Merrimack) plus a
Providence team that’s sniffing around a high playoff
position. They’re third in the league with 3.38 goals scored
per game and, until the weekend of Dec. 10, looked ready to
challenge rival BC for the conference’s top spot. Then the
wheels came off, starting with the arrest and dismissal of leading
scorer Corey Trivino, followed by Weymouth, Mass., native Charlie
Coyle’s defection to Canadian major junior hockey. Suddenly,
surging BU is in a big hole after a great first half.

Maine – C-plus. It’s been an
up-and-down season for the Black Bears, who slid through a
five-game winless stretch against league teams in early November.
They’ve shown some signs of promise, however, including an
impressive tie earned at North Dakota on Oct. 15. They’re in
the lower half of the league in most statistical categories, but
they’ve shined on the power play, with a league-leading 24.3
percent success rate. Spencer Abbott leads the league in
scoring.

UMass – D. Success has come in brief
but notable spurts for the Minutemen, who rattled off three
straight wins against BC, Holy Cross and Northeastern, and ended
the first half with a win over Yale. Other than those victories,
though, it’s been a down year in Amherst, with just two
league wins so far. Springfield, Mass., native TJ Syner is tied for
fourth in the league with 20 points, and West Haven, Conn., native
Michael Pereira is tied for ninth with 17 (with teammate Connor
Sheary one point behind), but it hasn’t been enough with a
defense coughing up 3.31 goals per game.

UMass-Lowell – A-minus. The River
Hawks aren’t getting a lot of love nationally, but
they’ve quietly become one of the top teams in the league,
firing off five straight wins (four against Hockey East teams)
before Northeastern stopped them right before Christmas. They enter
2012 sitting fourth in the league, and they’re trending
upward. Sophomore goaltender Doug Carr is second only to
Merrimack’s Joe Cannata (Wakefield, Mass.) in the league in
goals against (1.82) and save percentage (.934), and has been
central to the surge by a team with no players inside the top 14 in
league scoring.

Merrimack – A-minus. For the first
time in the program’s history, the Warriors were ranked No. 1
in the nation in November, a two-week stretch at Thanksgiving that
came at the end of their season-opening 10-game unbeaten streak.
They went 1-3-1 in a December cool-off, and some injuries have
slowed their momentum. Still, they’re among the
league’s elite, made even more remarkable by the fact that
they have the second-worst offense in Hockey East, averaging 2.93
goals per game. It helps that their defense is the league’s
best by a mile, led by goaltender Cannata in his finest season.

New Hampshire – C-minus. The
Wildcats took a while to get untracked at the start of the year,
and it turned out that their four-game winning streak that started
at the end of October seems to have been an aberration, not a
trend. They’ve done well on one end of the ice, scoring 3.35
goals per game (fourth in Hockey East), but they’ve been
woeful on the other end, allowing a second-worst 3.41 goals per
game. Senior goaltender Matt DiGirolamo has fallen short of
expectations, for sure, but he’s not getting a lot of help,
either, seeing the third-most shots allowed by any Hockey East team
(502).

Northeastern – B. The start of Jim
Madigan’s (Milton, Mass.) first year behind the bench
wasn’t ideal, with the Huskies going 1-7-2 through their
first 10 games. But things are starting to click on Huntington
Ave., and Northeastern hit the Christmas break on a six-game win
streak that included a 9-2 pounding of Notre Dame at South Bend.
They’re largely doing it with defense, and goaltender Chris
Rawlings is rounding into form after a shaky start that mirrored
the team’s.

Providence – B-minus. The Friars for
the first time in many years had people taking notice early in the
season, winning six of their first 10. They lost four of the six
games since, but still swept Merrimack in a two-game set just
before the break. Overall, they’re the most solid special
teams squad in the league, sitting third in power play (19.8) and
penalty kill (85.7) percentages. Even more impressively,
they’ve done it despite having no players inside the top 20
in league scoring – Tim Schaller (Merrimack, N.H.) is tied
for 30th with 13 points.

Vermont – F. Nothing has gone right
in Burlington this year, and the Catamounts are dead last on
offense (2.25 goals per game) and defense (4.12 goals allowed).
Other than Sebastian Stalberg, who’s tied for 15th in scoring
with 15 points, there haven’t been a lot of bright spots at
UVM. The Catamounts’ only league win came against a
struggling UMass team, and they’ve been outscored by their
opponents 66-36 this year.

Game of the Week

Boston University at Notre Dame, Saturday

The No. 9 Terriers enter the new year with some serious issues,
and although they would have been playing this game without the
World Junior Championship-occupied Coyle anyway, it’s their
first game without the departed Coyle and the dismissed Corey
Trivino.

Hockey East power rankings

1. Boston College (12-6-0, 9-4-0 Hockey
East) – The Eagles play the stiffest holiday
tournament competition of any league team, squaring off with
Michigan Thursday night and then seeing either Michigan State or
Michigan Tech Friday in the Great Lakes Invitational
2. Merrimack (10-3-2, 7-2-1) – The Warriors
head to Hanover, N.H., for the Dartmouth-hosted Ledyard National
Bank Classic, playing St. Lawrence Friday and either Dartmouth or
Holy Cross on Saturday.

3. UMass-Lowell (10-5-0, 7-4-0) – UML
heads to Connecticut for the UConn Hockey Classic, and squares off
against RPI Thursday to set up a clash with either the host Huskies
or Army on Friday.
4. Boston University (10-5-1, 8-4-1) – With a
lot of figuring out to do following two major departures, the
Terriers head to South Bend for a New Year’s Eve date with
Notre Dame.
5. Northeastern (7-7-2, 4-7-2) – It’s
the wilds of Minnesota for the Huskies, who play Princeton Friday
in the first round of the Mariucci Classic, followed by either host
Minnesota or Niagara on Saturday.

6. Providence (8-7-1, 6-4-0) – The
Friars stick around for the weekend and, while their New
Year’s Day game won’t help or hurt them in the
standings, it’s all about local pride – and the
Mayor’s Cup – against Brown on Sunday.
7. Maine (6-7-2, 5-6-1) – The Black Bears head
to sunny Florida for the Florida College Classic, a tournament they
won just two years ago. They’ve got Clarkson Thursday, and
UMass or Cornell on Friday.
8. New Hampshire (6-9-2, 4-7-1) – UNH hosts
Brown on Friday in one of the only non-tournament games of the
weekend. They’re 20-13-2 all-time against the Bears, and tied
them in the only meeting last year.

9. UMass (5-7-4, 2-6-3) – The
Minutemen may end up going an awful long way to play a Hockey East
foe on Friday. First, they’ve got Cornell in the Florida
College Classic, and then match up with either Clarkson or Maine on
Friday.

10. Vermont (3-12-1, 1-9-1) – UVM took
it on the chin from a talented Russian Red Stars team in an
exhibition Tuesday, and get back to games that count with the
Catamount Cup against Lake Superior Thursday and Ferris State
Friday.